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HAL-Rolls Royce celebrate 50 years of partnership

Bangalore, July 21 (UNI)

The ongoing Farnborough Air Show offered an ideal platform for the Indian defence aviation major Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and Rolls Royce to celebrate the golden jubilee of their partnership.

The two companies first came together in 1956 with an engine production licence and since then have combined their skills and technology to achieve many successes, including HAL becoming a member of the Rolls-Royce global supply chain in 2003.

The cooperation was looking ahead for a major forward with the two companies talking for co-production of Adour engines that would power the Advanced Jet Trainer (AJT), Hawk.

According to a HAL release, Farnborough Rolls-Royce Chief Executive Sir John Rose, speaking at the celebrations, ‘‘India, and HAL in particular, holds a very special place in the history of Rolls-Royce. We are proud of this valued partnership and high quality of engines we have together been able to deliver to the Indian Air Force and Navy during the past 50 years.’’

‘‘We now look forward to expanding this partnership, that will include co-production of the Adour engines for India’s new AJT Hawk.’’

In his response, HAL Chairman Ashok Baweja said ‘‘When HAL first built the Orpheus 50 years ago, little did we think that we would still be overhauling and flying this engine in the Indian Air Force today. HAL is proud to have built 750 Orpheus 701 and 703 engines and, so far, overhauled 2618. With the Kiran MkII expected to continue in service until replaced by HAL’s new Intermediate Jet Trainer, the Orpheus still has a lot of life ahead.’’

Mr Baweja said HAL was looking forward to take up joint production of Adour and other new programmes.